Just try not to die, okay?
by Aurellia Faun
Summary: Undergoing revisions, may not tie together for a bit. While Percy, Jason, and the others are on their quest to save the world, life goes on at Camp Half-Blood. Capture the Flag still accounts for more than 75% of infirmary visits, prophecies are made, quests are received... and hard lessons are learned about fame, friendship, sacrifice, and letting go. El precio de vida es muerte.
1. Chapter 1

Arianna's day was majorly sucking - even before she almost died.

Her morning started out normally enough; she got out of bed around five a.m. and changed into a pair of tattered overalls with some questionable stains on the legs from numerous mishaps involving Red the bull and Lucy the cow. Arianna plodded wearily to the barn that housed Red, Lucy, the other two cows, Bossy and Su, and the chickens. Even though she did her chores as quickly as she possibly could, it was six fifteen before she finally set aside her pitchfork and ran back to the house. _Crap! I only have fifteen minutes left to get ready for school, _Arianna thought. She shuddered at the thought of missing the bus again; the last time it had happened, her father had driven her to school in a tractor. Some kids _still _teased her about that. After somehow managing to break her record for fastest shower (three minutes! Maybe she would have time to grab some food after all), Arianna dug in her dresser frantically and came up with a pair of jeans and a light blue t-shirt. She put them on and rushed into the kitchen, where she began to rummage in the cabinet for something she could eat on the bus. It was then that she realized something strange was going on. "Hey Dad, we're out of cereal," she called over her shoulder to her father, who was sitting at the kitchen table, as she snatched a granola bar, picked up her backpack, and staggered out the door without stopping to see his reaction.

Just as Arianna slammed the door behind her, the large yellow school bus ground to a halt at the end of her driveway. She scampered inside before the driver could leave without her (it had happened before) and sat down in the first empty seat she came to. Sitting through the forty-five minute bus ride with nothing to do was absolute torture. Normally, Arianna did her homework on the way to school every morning when it finally sank into her head that the assignments were due, but she had done most of her work during the previous day's study hall during an extreme fit of boredom. Although she usually carried at least one book with her at all times, she had managed to forget the one she was reading in her locker. That left her two options: study for her US History test (like that would ever happen), or sleep.

Almost immediately after she fell asleep, she started dreaming. She saw what was obviously a palace of some sort, though it looked like it had seen better days; the crumbling black walls and a few maimed statues were the only things that were still standing. Two women were walking around. From a distance they looked normal enough, but when Arianna got a closer look at them she noticed that they were around seven feet tall and, even weirder, they were glowing. One of them looked like she'd been touched by King Midas; her hair, eyes, clothing, everything except her skin was golden. The other woman had brown hair and gray eyes; except for the silvery glow around her she looked like a scientist. "Look at this place, Phoebe." Goldie gestured to a few headless statues and a collapsed archway. "Hyperion and Krios worked so hard to restore it and now it's a ruin again."

"Yeah. Awful," Phoebe muttered. "Theia, can you focus for a few minutes? We're only here to salvage some things. Then we leave to seek out our lost brothers; you-"

Theia cut her off. "I know, I know, find him, kill some demigods, restore his memories, blah, blah, blah. Should be easy."

Phoebe shrugged. "Close enough. I must find where my husband is imprisoned." She finished clearing a blocked passageway, then stepped inside another room, which, unlike the rest of the palace, was fully intact. The center of the room was dominated by a jet black stone table that, like the rest of the room, showed traces of blood. One corner of the room had a pile of bones - human bones - stacked up against the walls. "The solstice is coming. Do it then, Theia. For now, it would be more helpful to gather an army. The camps must be destroyed before we can accomplish our goal."

Arianna woke with a start as the bus turned into the school parking lot. Had she really slept through the entire ride? Hastily wolfing down her granola bar, she shouldered her backpack and stepped off of the bus, thinking about her dream. She dismissed it as the result of watching too many horror movies the night before and hurried to get into the school building out of the cold November wind.

Once she made it safely inside, Arianna immediately headed to her locker, dropped off all of the textbooks in her backpack, and picked up her Biology book and notebook. Ducking and swerving to avoid the sudden rush of people in the hallway due to the arrival of another bus, she walked to the cafeteria, which was the students' main before school gathering place. Before going into the cafeteria, she stopped in a nearby bathroom to make sure nobody had drawn on her face while she was sleeping. Fortunately, no one had, so she attempted to fix her hair (she had forgotten to brush it), gave up, and went back to the cafeteria. She scanned the crowded tables, and was soon rewarded by a glimpse of the motorized wheelchair that belonged to her friend Melody. Arianna waded through the tangle of backpacks and book bags to the end of the table where Melody had parked. As usual, she was calmly reading a book while the people around her goofed off. Her shoulder length black hair was in two braids, which whipped around when she turned to call a greeting. "Hey, Arianna. Ready for your two mile run today?"

"Ugh, don't remind me," she groaned. "I know I ran cross country, but come on, seriously? Two miles in this weather?" Arianna plopped down in the empty seat next to Melody.

Laughing, she responded, "This weather? It's supposed to be clear and sunny all day!"

"Don't say that out loud!" Arianna quickly glanced out all of the windows, as if she was afraid that the weather would overhear them. "We're in Wisconsin. It could start pouring in ten minutes!"

"True. Did you finish your homework for today?" Melody asked, somewhat sternly.

"No, I threw it all down the rabbit hole in Wonderland." Seeing the look on her friend's face, she added, "Just kidding. I was really bored yesterday, so I did it then."

"You did your homework? It's a miracle!"

They continued to joke around and discuss the day's classes until their conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the bell. "See you in Biology, Melody!" Arianna said as she picked up her backpack and plodded off to Band. She made it in the door of the band room just after the bell rang to signal the starting of class. Fortunately, the director was too busy yelling at a trumpet player who had somehow lost his instrument that never left the school building to notice that she was late.

"Hey, freshman, hurry up and get over here!" one of the senior percussionists snapped at her. Arianna hurried to obey. Ticking off the seniors was never a good thing to do. "Here. Play this." The senior thrust a jingle bell shaker into her hands. For the next forty minutes, the band director coached the brass and woodwind sections through various parts of the piece they were supposed to play, which was an easy version of "Deck the Halls" that split the melody between the trumpets, flutes, and clarinets. Once the percussionists finally got to play, they barely made it through the song twice before the class ended.

Leaving all of her band stuff where it was, Arianna left for Art 101 and spent the class period trying to make a soap sculpture of a rabbit. The stupid soap kept breaking when she tried to carve the rabbit's legs, so after smashing it on the floor, she turned it in as roadkill and got an F. Muttering "Hypocritical art teachers," under her breath (apparently all of that "Anything can be a work of art" and "Your work won't be judged on how good your project looks" stuff didn't apply to making soap animals. Either that or it was a load of crap to make students feel better about their [lack of] art skills. Probably both.) as she stomped out of the classroom, heading towards the Biology room.

On her way there, she was stopped in the hallway by a boy named Elijah Nelson. He reminded her of a cow, with wide brown eyes that seemed too big for his head. "Hey, Parker, wanna hear a blonde joke?" Every head in the hallway seemed to turn towards Elijah. Feeling uncomfortable and angry at the same time, Arianna wanted to yell at the kid. Didn't he realize that more than half of the people in the school _were _blonde? So was she, for that matter. The genius didn't seem to notice the fact that their school was located in a Norwegian community. Elijah seemed to take her silence as a "yes" and launched into his joke.

"Okay, so there's a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead, and they're all running from the cops. They're looking for a place to hide, and they find this potato farm so they all crawl in some potato sacks. The cops make it to the farm, and one of them pokes the bag that the brunette is hiding in, so she says, 'Meow', and the police ignore her and think it's just a cat. Then a cop pokes the bag the redhead is hiding in and she says, 'Woof', so they think it's just a dog. When they poke the bag the blonde is hiding in, she says 'Potato!' Isn't that hilarious?"

Arianna started to edge away, noticing some of the other students' angry looks. "Uh, sure. Hey, don't you have Algebra next? You don't wanna be late for that." Rushing past him, she looked at her watch. One minute left. She walked faster, breaking into a run. If she was late for class, Ms. Greene would probably kill her.

The bell rang, thirty seconds before she made it into the Biology classroom. A few of the other kids giggled; probably the juniors. Ms. Greene shot her a murderous glare down her thin, pointed nose. Arianna froze; she'd seen that glare before, and it was never a good sign. "I'll sssee you after classss, Missss Parker," the teacher snarled. For some reason, she added an extra hiss on the letter "s" when she spoke, but no one dared to laugh or whisper about it. "Sssit down now, you're wasssting time." Arianna darted to her seat next to Melody in the back corner of the room. Ms. Greene's cold, serpentine gaze never left her as she gave the class instructions. "Today we are blood typing. At each table, there ssshould be two indicator cardsss, two four-pronged applicatorsss, and two sssterile -" she seemed to put particular emphasis on the word " - needlesss. Alssso, there isss a dropper of dissstilled water to prepare your cardsss with. You ssshould know what to do by now, asss we dissscussssed thisss lab yesssterday. Now get to it!"

Melody squeezed four drops of water on each of the indicator cards. "We need to get out of here before the end of class. Any ideas?" she asked, lowering her voice.

"Not that I want to stay after class, but since when do you play hooky?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Just tell me you know how we can leave after we finish the lab," Melody pleaded. That was unlike her.

Arianna frowned. Her friend was serious about this. "We could always pretend to feel nauseous at the sight of blood, after we get it on the cards." She picked up her needle and inspected the tip. It looked kind of wet, but there was an earlier class so it was probably just water or antiseptic. Screwing her eyes shut (it was easier to prick herself if she didn't watch), she plunged the needle into the tip of her middle finger. Catching the teacher's gaze as she reopened her eyes, she noticed a change in Ms. Greene's normally stern expression. She was smiling, in her own sinister way. A second later her face looked normal again, and Arianna figured that she had just imagined it.

"That... is the worst plan I've ever heard. It sounds like chapter 6 of _Twilight _except dumber," came the reply.

"You read _Twilight_?"

Melody sighed. "Stop changing the subject!"

"Fine. For most teachers, there are three magic words: '_I'm gonna puke_'. Unfortunately, Ms. Greene isn't normal-"

"You've got that right," Melody interrupted.

Arianna paused to glare at her. "So we need a distraction, after we get done with this." She looked at her applicator as if she had just noticed that it was there, and slowly finished up the lab. Her arms felt heavier, somehow, like they were weighed down with bricks. She pulled out her chair - was it always that heavy? - and sat down. For once she didn't feel the need to move around.

"Are you okay?" Melody asked, probably because Arianna was sitting still, something she almost never did.

"No. I'll go call Dad after class and see if he can come get me. I don't feel so good."

"You should go to the nurse's office. Hurry, before the -"

The bell rang, cutting her off, and the teacher got up from her desk. "I am coming around to collect your resssultsss. Asss sssoon asss I take your card, you may leave."

Ms. Greene made her way around the room, collecting indicator cards. Soon, everyone had left except for Melody and Arianna. When Arianna drowsily stood up, the room seemed to spin. It was almost like she had a pair of those drunk goggles on, except she wasn't seeing double. At least, not yet. She decided to get the lecture on promptness over with so she could go home and shuffled to the back of the classroom, trying not to trip over anything. The teacher was back at her desk again, talking to Melody. As she got closer, she heard some of their conversation.

"Missss Brunner, you will leave at onccce! There isss no reassson for you to ssstay here."

"I'm on to you, _dracaena_. No way am I leaving you alone with her." Melody's voice trembled slightly.

Ms. Greene quickly replied, "Of courssse you are. I jussst want to talk with her about sssomething. If I wasss going to kill her, I would have usssed a lethal poissson. If I get my anssswersss, I'll leave." Arianna got the feeling that she was the "her" in the conversation, which was seriously creepy. One thing really bothered her - she thought she'd heard her teacher say that she'd somehow poisoned her. While she tried to figure out how the heck that could've happened, Melody finally noticed her.

"How much of that did you overhear?" she asked.

"Enough. What's going on?"

Melody looked like she was trying to decide how much she should tell Arianna. "It's complicated, and we don't have much time, so I'll give you the basics: That," she said, pointing to the Biology teacher, "is a monster. It's called a _dracaena_. Usually, monsters want to kill demigods like you, and I'm pretty sure this one does too, but for some reason she seems to want you alive. This is a bad thing. Now, you can - "

"Whoa, slow down. What's a _dracaena _and what's a demigod?" Arianna interrupted._  
><em>

"Ssshe doesssn't know? And here I thought you told her... Well, thisss changesss thingsss," Ms. Greene hissed. She slithered out from behind the desk on twin snake tails that didn't belong to any species Arianna recognized. That could've been because her eyesight was now so blurry that she could barely tell the difference between Melody and her soon to be former teacher. She cried out as she felt something poke her in the arm, leaving two identical red holes, which she soon realized were fang marks.

An object was pressed into her hand. It looked like a knife or a dagger of some sort. "I want that back, by the way," Melody muttered as she pulled a crossbow out from under her lap robe. Arianna gave up trying to understand anything and decided to just go with it. Sure, it made perfect sense that her Biology teacher turned into a snake monster and her best friend apparently had a stockpile of weapons. There were other things for her to deal with at the moment. Like the fact that she just couldn't seem to make her legs move the way she wanted them to.

Almost without realizing it, she crashed into the teacher's desk, hitting her head in the process, which didn't help things at all. "Arianna!" Melody turned for a moment to see what had happened. It was a moment too long. The _dracaena _pulled out a spear - seriously, where were all the weapons coming from? - and thrust it through the bow string and into the spokes of one of the wheels on Melody's chair, effectively stopping it where it was. Melody cursed in another language, but Arianna could understand some of what she was saying; she told the _dracaena_ exactly where she was gonna put that spear when she pulled it out of the floor and what she could go do with some guy named Narcissus. Either that or she had just complimented Ms. Greene's nonexistent hat.

While Melody was distracted, the _dracaena_ turned her attention to Arianna. "Now it'sss your turn. Your mother'sss ssso-called blessssing won't sssave you thisss time. I'll jussst have to kill you more creatively." Arianna heard the sound of steel on leather and guessed that she had just pulled out another weapon. She couldn't even see the monster from her position half on and half off the desk; that just made it scarier.

The first thing she saw was the flash of bronze above her chest. Instinctively, she held up the knife Melody had given her to try and block it. Lesson learned: when it's knife versus sword, sword always wins. Even though she couldn't see the damage the sword had done, Arianna was pretty sure it did more to her t-shirt than her. Either her block had gone better than she thought it had or Ms. Greene wasn't trying that hard. There was a third reason that she didn't want to think about, but seemed pretty likely: she was being toyed with. The _dracaena_ could kill her whenever she felt like it, and probably would when Melody freed herself. Before attacking again, Ms. Greene put duct tape over Arianna's mouth. "Ssso no one will hear you ssscream," she explained unnecessarily. "Let'sss wrap thisss up sssoon. I have a classss next hour."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Yeah, that whole once-a-month thing didn't work out. I'll take this story off of hiatus soon, but it really needed to be rewritten, especially after <em>Mark of Athena<em> *insert obligatory rant about the cliffhanger here*. Hopefully it's slightly better now. I won't rewrite the whole story again, no matter what Rick Riordan puts in _House of Hades_. So I'm only keeping with continuity up until the end of _Mark of Athena_. Anything in this that happens after the cliffhanger (like, the whole story) is not canon. Yes, some of the main characters from the Heroes of Olympus series will show up. Eventually. They'll still be important and all, but I'm not making any of this from their points of view.**

**I don't own the Percy Jackson series or anything else I choose to reference. - the one and only disclaimer I'll ever put in. I shouldn't have to repeat that every chapter. Now to rewrite chapter two!**


	2. Chapter 2

_There was a third reason that she didn't want to think about, but seemed pretty likely: she was being toyed with. The _dracaena_ could kill her whenever she felt like it, and probably would when Melody freed herself. Before attacking again, Ms. Greene put duct tape over Arianna's mouth. "Ssso no one will hear you ssscream," she explained unnecessarily. "Let'sss wrap thisss up sssoon. I have a classss next hour."_

* * *

><p>Arianna tried to grab at the duct tape, but found that her arms had gone limp at her sides. Great. As the <em>dracaena's <em>sword cut a gash in her stomach (that, even with her hopefully temporary paralysis, she still felt), she realized that she hadn't even said goodbye to her father that morning. _There's time to feel guilty about that later - if there is a later, _she told herself, letting out a muffled scream when the blade found another easy target. _Right now you have to __focus on staying alive._

Easier said than done. Melody still hadn't managed to get the spear untangled from her chair, judging from the distant sound of something - a saw? - cutting through the wooden spearhaft. Occasionally she would mutter something that Arianna couldn't quite make out. Suddenly, the door burst open and a student walked in.

"Ms. Greene? Here's that lab report from two months ago -" he stopped as he noticed the freshman lying on top of the teacher's desk, the blood, and the sword that obviously hadn't just been cutting flowers from the courtyard. "Oh my... the Biology teacher went crazy and killed someone! I knew this day would come! I KNEW IT!" he screamed as he ran out of the room.

The _dracaena _seemed to have been mildly annoyed by the interruption, and used it as an excuse to start taunting Melody. "Ssstupid mortalsss. I'll deal with him later. Now, where wasss I? Oh yesss, I wasss jussst about to finisssh off your friend. Tsssk tsssk, haven't you gotten yourssself free yet? I'm sssurprisssed at you. If you sssit there for much longer-" _THUNK!_ A crossbow bolt plowed through the monster's torso and stuck in the wall behind her.

"Sorry that took so long," Melody apologized as the _dracaena _exploded into dust. "My spare bowstring ended up in the bottom of my backpack. I really need to clean that out." As she finished talking, she ripped the duct tape off of Arianna's mouth. "Ooh, that _had _to hurt."

"Gee... you think?" Arianna said sarcastically.

Melody dug around in her backpack some more, tossing a dozen arrows, an unstrung bow, a textbook, and a binder on the floor. "Here, drink this," she said, holding a canteen up to Arianna's lips. She drank, expecting it to be water. Instead, the liquid tasted like her dad's brownies. Normally, that would've weirded her out a lot more, but her day so far had already been about as much as she could handle. Oh, and whatever the mysterious liquid was was healing her wounds. Sure. Why not? Arianna had about a million questions. Like, _what's going on, why can I still talk when I can't move the rest of my body, _and _WHAT THE HECK IS A DEMIGOD?_ "Hm. I don't think we can risk any more nectar." So that's what the drink was called. "We've got about ten minutes before our ride gets here. They're picking up some campers from Mankato, and Dad thought it would be safer to hitch hike with them than if I ran you to camp myself. It'll be way slower, but 'suspicious-looking white vans attract _way _less monsters', apparently."_  
><em>

As she watched (if looking at barely identifiable blurs upside-down counts as watching) Melody stuffing her things back into her backpack, Arianna asked, "How'd you get all that stuff in there, anyways? And why didn't anyone notice your weapons?"

"This is bigger than it looks," Melody replied, holding up her now full backpack. "As for your second question, have you ever read the _Iliad?"_

_"_Yeah, last year. Why?"

"Do you remember the part when Athena gives Diomedes the ability to see the gods?"

Arianna thought about that for a bit. The only thing she could really remember about that book was that it was about the Trojan War and a lot of people die. "Must've missed that."

"She was letting him see through the Mist," Melody said as if that explained everything.

"What's the Mist?"

"The Mist changes what mortals see to things that their minds can comprehend. For example, that guy that ran in here a few minutes ago saw the _dracaena _as a human and her sword - well, that could've looked the same, or he thought it was a knife. You know that freak storm system from a few years ago?" Arianna gave her an _are-you-seriously-asking-me-that_ look and Melody continued, "That was actually Typhon. He broke out of his prison with the help of the Titans and their armies."

Arianna was pretty sure she'd missed something in there. Like, maybe, the explanation for how the Titans actually existed. She was almost afraid to ask, in case there was a longer explanation, but did it anyways. "Wait, so you're saying all that Greek mythology stuff is _real_?"

"Yes. I'll explain more when we get out of here. If we want to leave before everyone gets out for lunch, we'd better start now."

"Yeah, there's just one little problem with that," Arianna responded. "I'm kinda stuck."

Melody grinned. "Not anymore." To Arianna's surprise, Melody slid her off of the desk and into her lap.

Arianna almost asked if she was hurting Melody, then realized that was a stupid question. If she needed a wheelchair, then she probably didn't have feeling in her legs. Melody pressed a few buttons, then started moving the chair towards the parking lot. At about fifteen miles per hour. It was an experience neither of them would reccommend to anyone, and if they hadn't needed to be quiet, both of them would've been yelling their heads off. "Let's... never... do that... again," Arianna gasped once they made it to the parking lot.

"Unless I can reach that button myself, right?" The outside doors of the school weren't fully automatic, but there was a button for handicapped people to press next to each one. Since Arianna was horizontally across the wheelchair (the only way she would stay on), she'd somehow managed to hit the button with her head... but not before Melody slammed on the brakes. "Oh, look, there's our ride," Melody said somewhat awkwardly.

Sure enough there was a very suspicious-looking white van parked around the back, with some kind of logo on the side. "Austin! They look like they're having trouble. We should help them!" a girl's voice called.

"By 'we' you mean 'me', right, Jess?" A guy, presumably Austin. "Wow, what happened, guys?" he asked as he got closer.

Arianna felt arms underneath her, lifting. Jess muttered under her breath, "Are you always this heavy?" as she carried her into the van and laid her on the back seat. Before Arianna thought to reply, Jess was gone. Almost as soon as Jess had left, Austin walked in the back door.

"Don't mind her, she just wants to get to camp and see her _boyfriend_," Austin said, the last word in a sing-song tone. "Melody told me about your, ah, condition, so if you don't mind, I'm going to check you over for any injuries." Arianna waited, like she had a choice, and took the time to try and process everything that had happened so far, rather unsuccessfully. "You've obviously just had ambrosia or nectar, so I can't give you any more of that. You'll need a few stitches in your left side, and that bite wound is starting to look pretty nasty. Most _dracaenae_ aren't venemous, but you must've gotten unlucky." He proceeded to list off a ton of side effects from memory, including nausea, dizziness, unconsciousness, paralysis, "And in some cases, even death," he finished almost cheerfully. "Don't worry, it's not usually permanent. Except for death, but, you know," Austin added, noticing her expression. "As long as you don't turn out to be allergic, you'll be fine in a few days."

"Well, that's reassuring," Arianna mumbled. Austin smiled - or at least, she thought it was a smile - and sat down one row up from her, next to Melody. Jess hopped in the seat next to the driver.

As soon as the van pulled out of the parking lot, Melody rotated her chair until she was facing Arianna. "Alright, it's explanation time. You know what a demigod is, right?" When Arianna shook her head, Melody went on, "Demigods are the children of humans and the Greek gods. You see, after an eternity together, some of them started to get tired of their spouses, like Zeus. Others, like Eos, somehow managed to tick off Aphrodite and were cursed to only fall in love with mortals. Whatever the case, the gods are still around and having lots of demigod children. Most of them have never even met their parents. Your mom, whoever she is, is one of the goddesses."

That took about a minute to sink in. "How's that even possible? Even if the gods were real, wouldn't they be gone after Greece fell?"

"The gods move along with Western Civilization. First they moved to Rome and got name changes; Poseidon became Neptune, and so on. They were in Spain, France, England, and a few other places before coming to America. When they move, locations move with them. There is still a Mt. Olympus in Greece, but the new Mt. Olympus is above the Empire State Building."

Arianna was pretty shocked. She almost believed Melody, until she remembered something. "My mom has seen me, though. Dad said she came back a few months after I was born. Only stayed for a couple days, though; she was passing through on her way to the airport. She was going to Africa to help famine victims, or something like that."

"That's possible. I'm pretty sure I know who your mom is now, assuming that your dad wasn't lying."

"Will you tell me?" Arianna asked, for once already knowing the answer.

"No; besides, I could be wrong. You'll have to wait until you get claimed. You're over thirteen, so that should happen pretty soon after you get to camp."

Muttering, "And so the insanity continues," Arianna wondered why no one else in the van thought any of this was even mildly weird. After a few seconds, she decided that they either hadn't been listening or they were and they were just crazy. _Or it's true, and you don't want to admit it. _"Where is this camp?"

"New York. It's -"

"-the most amazing place ever!" Austin cut in. "We've got archery, a sword fighting arena, basketball courts, a lake, capture the flag - and not too many people die! Well, not there anyways. Oh, never go into the woods alone with a Hermes kid. This one time I..." he trailed off. "Sorry, go ahead."

Melody cleared her throat. "Actually, that sums up camp pretty well. And Austin, Chris didn't know that Travis and Conner were hiding there."

"That's what he wants you to think," Austin replied. "So, more about the camp: right now it's just the year-round crowd and a few really early arrivals. In the summer, it's way busier. There's about thirty cabins currently and there might even be another wing added on if more minor gods start sending their kids. The cabins are all different, and who stays in them is determined by who your parent is. My dad's Apollo, so I'm in his cabin. Jess is a daughter of Nike, goddess of victory. I wouldn't bring the shoe company up around her if I were you. She starts ranting."

Arianna surprised herself by actually starting to get excited. "Are you a demigod, Melody?" she asked.

"No, she's a centaur!" Austin said obliviously.

"Thanks for that. I guess I don't need to stay in this thing anymore." Melody's wheelchair made some pretty interesting noises as she got out of it. The van must've had a pretty high ceiling, because Melody was now at least twice as tall, and standing on four legs.

Starting to feel dizzy, Arianna looked away. Okay, she was convinced. All that stuff they were trying to explain to her was true. That didn't mean she understood it, or liked it for that matter. She was feeling really lightheaded now. Was that one of those symptoms Austin was talking about? Not that it mattered. She could still...

"Look! Symptom four, unconsicousness, right on schedule!" was the last thing Arianna heard before she passed out, which, all things considered, she really couldn't have been blamed for.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: As you might've noticed, I changed the title and summary of this story. The good news is, I'm done with re-writing, so I'll actually start posting new chapters soon. The next chapter will probably be from someone else's point of view, since I'm (trying to) write in third person limited. I might have to change that, though.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

Too bad dumping water on unconscious people didn't work quite as well as it always did in the movies.

Brenna had gotten in trouble for trying that, of course, but she really didn't care. Having to sit in the boring infirmary for four hours every day, though, was killer. It had been two days since Austin and Jess had come back from Thanksgiving with Melody and the new girl, whose name Brenna hadn't bothered to learn yet. Something that started with an "A". No idea who her parent was yet, since she had arrived unconscious and hadn't woken up. Maybe if Brenna tried the water again... nah, it wouldn't be worth more time in the infirmary. Especially since some genius had decided to replace the clock with a digital one, so she couldn't even tell what time it was. One something? Being dyslexic really sucked.

For the tenth time in as many seconds, Brenna stared at the posters she could barely read on the white walls, wishing that Hailey was still stuck there too. The bratty Aphrodite girl was so much fun to annoy. Wait, what was that at the window? A squirrel? No, it was just a stupid leaf. Brenna hated it when she got distracted by stuff that didn't even turn out to be interesting. She started messing with her hair, taking it out of its usual ponytail. Something brown fell in front of her eyes; her bangs were getting annoying again.

While she shoved her hair back away from her face, she heard someone moving. Figuring that either one of her half brothers was hiding in the closet again or the new girl was finally awake, Brenna went to investigate. Out of habit, she checked the closet first. No one. So she did what any sensible person would do; she ran out of the infirmary yelling and screaming at the top of her lungs until she found an Apollo kid. The Apollo kid just so happened to be Austin. Fortunately, he was alone and pretty close by. How had no one else heard her? "Oh my gods, Brenna, could you possibly deafen me any _more_?" Austin complained.

"You live in the Apollo cabin, dude, and no _way _was that worse than karaoke night. Some people should never be allowed to sing. Anyways, that one new kid is finally conscious now, so you need to, I don't know, do something," she told him.

"Great! You're coming with me. Someone has to show her around the camp, and I have to get back to archery practice. By the way, why does Nim keep following me around with hair dye and contacts?"

Brenna rolled her eyes at him. Not because she was just forced to become a tour guide; she was used to that by now. It had more to do with him not noticing that the ginger "midget" (actually five foot four) with no stealth skills whatsoever was "stalking" him for the past month and a half. "Nim thinks you're a mob witness and you have to change what you look like so you won't get killed before you testify." Actually, that wasn't the reason at all, but it was way easier to tell him that instead of getting into her half sister's tweenage drama.

"And no one reminded her that there are, like, at least twenty other people here with blond hair and blue eyes?" Austin asked, raising an eyebrow. He, along with almost everyone else, knew Nim was actually crazy enough to do something like that when she had caffeine. Unfortunately, being a Hermes kid, Nim got quite a bit of caffeine. From where, Brenna had no idea.

"That would've ruined her fun." They had now arrived back at the infirmary. The new girl was sitting up and obviously had no idea what was going on. Boy did _that _bring back memories, like the time Clovis gave her amnesia, and when she fell off of the Ares cabin's roof because Clarisse "accidentally" hit her with a volleyball (that sucked, since she actually had a legit reason to be up there that time), and...

Brenna realized that Austin was trying to tell her something. "Sorry, can you repeat that?" she asked.

"Arianna, this is Brenna, daughter of Hermes. She randomly spaces out when you're trying to introduce her to someone and covers cabins in tomatoes," Austin said, pretending to ignore Brenna. "Oh, and she's gonna show you the camp," he added as an afterthought.

"You're still mad about the tomato thing? That was supposed to happen to the Hunters..." Austin glared at her and for once Brenna took the hint. "Okay, guess we can figure that out later. Nice to meet you, Arianna." At least she knew the new girl's name now.

"You too," Arianna replied. There was an awkward silence, which Brenna used to play "Guess Whose Kid This Is". Arianna was a blond, but she had brown eyes, not grey, so Athena was out. No makeup, and she didn't seem to care that her hair was messy, so probably not Aphrodite. The kid didn't look like anyone from the other cabins where everyone looked the same, and she really didn't seem like a Hermes or Ares kid, but sometimes it was hard to tell at first. Man, this game was a lot easier when you knew which one of the parents was mortal.

That seemed like as good of an awkward silence-breaking question as anything. "So, is your dad a god or your mom?" Brenna inquired.

"My mom, I guess. You sure I wasn't hallucinating, Austin?"

"I'm sure. I mean, I kind of told you a little before she did it," he reassured. Maybe Brenna had missed a little more than she thought she had, because that didn't make sense. "Melody's sorry she can't be here right now, by the way. She's helping with archery," Austin continued.

Ah. That explained it. "Didn't Chiron let Melody go to Wisconsin because he said it would be one of the safer places? You know, after she bugged him about it for months?"

Arianna was starting to look confused again, so Austin mouthed "Melody's dad" to her before replying, "Yeah, but I'd be protective too if I'd just gotten my kid back after a few thousand years."

"What about... nah, forget it. I'll ask her later. How does two days ago fit _anyone's _definition of safe? I still don't know how good walking'll go," Arianna put in. Brenna vaguely recalled Jess telling her what had happened then. Fortunately, Chiron had known the antidote for _dracaena _venom. After the defeat of Gaia and the giants, many of the more dangerous monsters had been released, some of them so old that they hadn't been seen since the time of Alexander the Great. Chiron was being called to the infirmary more and more often. Brenna estimated that he'd gone about three days with no sleep until last night, when most of the campers in the infirmary were released.

Austin shrugged. "Why don't you get up and try?"

As soon as Arianna pulled back the white sheets, Brenna saw that something was off. No one had thought to replace Arianna's shirt, which had been pretty much destroyed. "Wow, Austin, I didn't think you were _that _perverted," she joked - sort of, anyways. Ignoring his protests, she added, "I'll go see if I can st- er, find a different shirt for you. Be right back."

It took Brenna about five minutes to come back with a neon orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and a black windbreaker "borrowed" from the camp store. Okay, maybe the jacket hadn't been super necessary, but even at camp it got cold at night and during the winter. "You, go back to archery," she said, pointing at Austin, "and you, change into this once he's gone. I'll watch the door." Throwing the shirt and jacket to Arianna, she stood outside the door forever (okay, more like a minute) until the younger girl had finished changing. "Ready to go?"

"Sure." The two girls walked around the campgrounds, talking, as Brenna pointed out various places. Including the obvious ones. Heck, the obvious ones were the most fun.

"This is the lake. It's full of water. There aren't many squirrels over here. Maybe later we can check the woods."

Arianna looked a bit apprehensive about that. "Isn't that where Austin said to 'never go alone with a Hermes kid'?"

"Man, that guy can't let anything go. Chris even apologized and everything." Brenna silently cursed Austin for warning people, but pretty soon the conversation topic changed.

During the first part of the tour, Brenna had to explain a lot of stuff, including why demigods and technology didn't mix. Also, she found out that Arianna knew pretty much nothing about Greek mythology, so she gave her a crash course. (With a few "helpful" pointers thrown in like "If you ever meet Ares make sure not to tell him that his kids are butt-faced jerks who can't tell one end of a sword from the other, 'cause you'll end up in a body cast, even if one of your best friends is from his cabin and he could tell you were joking" and "Iris doesn't accept fake _drachma_ and she doesn't care if it's an emergency and that was your last hope of surviving the Apollo cabin's wrath.")

"So, how old are you, anyways?" Brenna asked after they'd passed the swordfighting arena.

"Fourteen. I just started freshman year."

Brenna blurted out, "Seventeen. Congrats, you've officially gotten further in school than me." Immediately, she regretted it, and changed the subject, hoping that Arianna wouldn't notice. Too late.

"You're seventeen? How...?" the other girl trailed off, apparently figuring out that finishing that question would be a bad idea. "Um... what's that over there?"

Looking where Arianna was pointing, Brenna answered, "That's the dining hall. We've still got a couple hours before dinner, so let's go check out the cabins." Making sure to stay somewhat out of sight when they passed the toilets, the two got to the first few minor god cabins. "You'll be staying in the Hermes cabin until your mom claims you. You're over thirteen, so that should happen any day now."

"How does claiming work?" Arianna asked. One short explanation later, she shuddered. "That sounds really, really embarrassing."

"Only if you're in front of a ton of people. Now let's see, judging from your luck so far, we can probably rule out the Tyche cabin," Brenna said.

"If that wasn't so true, I might be offended."

Brenna continued, "Whoa, you actually paid attention to your crash course in Greek Mythology. Let's start with the Hecate cabin. It's closest." It took about a half hour to go through all of the cabins for the minor goddesses and by that time both girls were getting pretty tired and hungry. "Ugh, we have another hour until dinner. We can look at the cabins for the Olympians now, then figure out where the heck you're gonna sleep. That one Hebe kid got claimed yesterday, so there should be an open bed somewhere."

"Hey, is there supposed to be a giant Barbie dreamhouse there?"

"That's Cabin Ten. Aphrodite. They can be kind of self-centered, and flirty, and shallow, but most of the time they aren't that bad. It was a lot better when Piper was HC, though."

"What happened to her?"

Brenna cleared her throat. That was one topic that could wait awhile. "Anyways, this next cabin, Cabin Eight, is for Artemis' Hunters to use when they visit. _Never _expose your face when you're playing them in Capture the Flag. Fart arrows are killer..."

"And the Hunters are...?"

"An immortal band of teenage girls who go on adventures with Artemis. They have to swear off boys forever, though."

Arianna sighed. "There's always a catch."

"Here's Cabin Six, the Athena cabin. Pranking these guys is more dangerous than the Ares cabin by far. They're wicked strategists, and amazingly smart. For some reason they like to order a ton of pizza. There're, like, thirteen kids in there though and this one nerdy guy can eat one pizza all by himself. You'd never be able to tell by looking at him. I still think the Athena kids are hiding something in there, but they changed all the locks. Picking those takes so long, I usually get bored and quit halfway through. Maybe that was part of their evil plan."

"You're getting off topic again." This had happened repeatedly while they were looking at every freaking cabin. In Brenna's defense, there wasn't really all that much you could say about Hebe. Or Eos.

Resisting the urge to say something about cupcakes, Brenna moved on to the last cabin with actual people in it. "This is the Demeter cabin. Right now there's only three people, but three more are coming in the summer. It used to be one of the bigger cabins, but - and I'm not going into this now - they lost almost everyone because of the Giant War." That battle had the worst casualties of the entire war. "Not all of them died," she added quickly, somewhat getting rid of Arianna's shocked expression, "Some, like Katie and Miranda Gardner, just decided to 'retire' and go to college. Anyways, Demeter's kids are hardworking, usually good at cooking and stuff like that, sometimes cereal-obsessed, and _very _dangerous if you piss them off. Have you ever been wrapped in poison ivy while hanging off a roof?" Arianna shook her head. "I don't recommend it. Stupid Travis..."

"Who's Travis? Everyone keeps mentioning him and Conner."

"Travis and Conner are the head counselors of my cabin. They've pranked and/or pickpocketed everyone in camp at least once. You'll meet them when they get back from their quest. Sean and I are filling in for them right now."_ If _they came back, Brenna didn't add, they'd probably be sent out again right away. A lot of the senior campers - like, the ones that were there since before the Titan War - kept getting called to defeat such and such a monster, or retrieve so-and-so who was supposed to be dead two thousand years ago. Honestly, she was surprised all of them had managed to survive this long, what with how little rest they got. She knew all too well how easily people could die because they were too tired to fight well. "Speaking of Sean, I accidentally left him alone for Arts and Crafts. If he lived, I'll have to apologize later. Oh well, time to meet the lunatics that are my siblings. You don't have much worth stealing, so you should be fine."

They walked in the door of the Hermes cabin. The place just didn't feel the same since it got (long overdue and much-needed) repairs after the Giant War. It was still full of as many bunk beds as it could hold, but at least it didn't look like it was going to fall over anymore. "Guys? Anyone here?" Brenna looked around at the strangely empty cabin. "Looks like Sean left a note. Let's see... crap, he wrote in cursive, that jerk. He knows I can't read cursive. Can you read this?" She handed the note to Arianna.

"Sure. It says, '_At the showers. Nim's clay exploded. Got on everything. Going to kill you for ditching me. Sean. P.S. Diego may or may not be pissed at you, so you're on your own._' That doesn't sound good." Brenna grabbed her by the arm and started running. Well wasn't this great.

"If Diego's pissed at me, probably so's Jess, so the Nike cabin's out... oh my gods someone just left the showers... um... there!" Brenna picked a cabin at random at ran inside. "This is awkward..." Of _course_ it was Trident Boy's cabin, and he just _had _to be explaining "guy stuff" to his brother.

Trident Boy actually looked pretty relieved that two random girls (one of them that he didn't even know) had interrupted _that_ conversation. "Uh, can I help you guys or something? Xavier, go canoeing or something," he added to his eight-year-old brother.

Brenna figured it'd be even more awkward if she said she was hiding from Sean until he either came to his senses (since when could _anyone_ control Nim?) or got over it. Either way, they'd be stuck in the recently made Triton cabin for about fifteen minutes. Fortunately, new campers were the best excuse ever; seriously, they could get you out of _anything._ Pranked the Aphrodite cabin? Nope, just demonstrating how not to behave. Beat the crap out of someone? (Although that was really more Diego's kind of thing.) They went too far teasing the newbie. The possiblilities were endless. "Actually, yeah. I wanted you to meet Arianna."

"Cool. I'm Kieran," he said, "but some people call me Trident Boy or TB because that's 'easier to say'. When did you get here, Arianna?" Case in point. Trident Boy - okay, fine, _Kieran_ - was a little bit gullible, though. Brenna had actually planned on intoducing him to Arianna, who she had even warned about comparing Kieran to another black-haired, green-eyed son of a sea god. TB pretended to brush things off, only to be found angsting in a corner later by his little sister, and Brenna couldn't blame him. Who would want to spend their life constantly being compared to Percy Jackson? Kieran usually didn't even hate Percy, which in her opinion made it worse.

"Two days ago, but I didn't wake up 'til this afternoon." While the two of them got to know each other, Brenna stared at the fish tank. Every month, Xavier "adopted" a (or multiple) random fish that he insisted needed his help. For November it was a school of minnows. As the only one of the three Triton kids who could easily communicate with sea (or in this case, lake) creatures, he sometimes disappeared underwater for hours at a time. Without telling his crazy protective older siblings.

Somehow, Brenna managed to not eavesdrop on the conversation. Man, what was getting into her today? First she'd taken someone on a camp tour _without _pranking or annoying the living hell out of her, then she'd actually been what passed for patient with her while she was explaining pretty much everything. Worst of all, Brenna had made plans for Arianna to meet her friends. Which meant that she was starting to think of the new girl as a friend. Since her first and hopefully only quest, Brenna had quickly found out that nothing good ever came from being her friend. She was pretty, no, very surprised that Diego was still alive, and even more astonished that she hadn't been offed the moment she set foot outside the camp boundaries. There was a great reason why she and Diego hadn't gone on another quest, and every time she helped him sneak out to see his mom and little sister she ended up either getting in huge trouble (like, way worse than usual) or obsessively waiting for him with Jess near Half-Blood Hill.

Kieran poked Brenna in the stomach, thankfully interrupting her train of thought. "It's time to go to dinner," he said in a sing-song voice. Brenna sighed. Almost friends or not, if she had to explain one more thing to Arianna that day she was going to voluntarily challenge the entire Nike cabin to a volleyball game.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Compared to the amount of time the other chapters took, this is a fast update. I'm going to be switching point of view every two chapters, between four people. Anyone who knows me at school knows who I based Nim on (hint: It wasn't just my sister). So, I hope y'all liked this chapter, expect the next update to happen sometime before spring.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

Dinner was a relatively normal affair. Brenna had, fortunately, already told Arianna about the whole offering thing, so once that was over with Mr. D gave the usual awkward "oh, by the way, there's a new camper and no, I'm not going to get her name right" announcement, along with a few other unimportant ones. There was something about canoes and a reminder to the Hecate kids about using magic to avoid punishment. Boring. For once Brenna was the only one not talking (or in Nim's case, singing) at the Hermes cabin's table. She was too busy filling her mouth with food - she wasn't even looking at what she was eating. In what was probably record time for her, she finished everything that was on her plate. Naturally, while she was wondering how she'd managed to eat that fast, Sean decided to talk to her. Oh, joy. "Why _did _you skip out on everything today?" he asked. Gods, that boy was unobservant; did he not notice the new person at the table? Then again, people came in and out of the Hermes cabin so often that even Brenna periodically forgot which ones were her siblings.

"I was showing someone around. By the way, cursive? Really? You're lucky I was with someone who knew how to read it." Sure, he was mad at her at the time, but that was over the line.

Sean pushed his overly long bangs away from his eyes - blue, probably from someone putting dye in his shampoo bottle; his hair had definitely been red that morning. At least they matched his eyes. "Oh. I feel kinda bad now. Not that you being there would've made any difference, but..."

_Now _he got it. "Yeah, yeah." Sean brushed his hair back again; it was starting to get annoying. "Tell you what," Brenna continued, "if you get a hair cut, I'll make sure Lou Ellen doesn't turn you into a squirrel and use you for magical target practice." Okay, so she might've decided to help him anyways, but he didn't need to know that. Especially since he'd stolen her hair brush yesterday.

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"Dude, you look like a more emo, blue-haired version of Justin Bieber. Don't deny it, you know it's true."

Suddenly, something else got through his thick skull. "Wait, how'd Lou Ellen find out it was me?" Brenna shrugged. "Alright, fine. Deal."

They sat in silence for a few seconds until Brenna asked, "So, why _is _Diego mad at me?"

"Have you seen his backpack?" When she shook her head, Sean added, "Let's just say someone gave it a make-over."

"You don't mean...?"

"Yep. Rescue Pack." The one thing Diego hated more than anything else in the world was when people made _Go, Diego, Go! _references, especially if they were aimed at him. The ones who did it in front of him tended to end up in the infirmary for weeks.

Brenna rolled her eyes. "He seriously thinks I'm that stupid? Who _really _did it?"

"One of his brothers."

Sighing, she replied, "I'll talk to him later." It was Thursday, which meant Trials of Strength. Since Brenna didn't particularly care about those, she figured she'd just help Arianna find a weapon or something. Or maybe she'd go get some sushi. Sure, Brenna had just eaten, but Camp Half-Blood didn't do sushi. And man, did she love sushi.

As if he could read her thoughts, Sean instantly said, "You'd better show up for Trials of Strength later, unless you actually have a legit excuse." In her opinion, sushi was an excellent reason to skip out on something boring that she also happened to suck at. Getting taken out by Nim was a new personal low.

By the time dinner ended, Brenna still hadn't thought of a good excuse, so she went and found Arianna, who happened to be talking to Austin. Perfect. She knew for a fact that Austin hated the Trials, so maybe he would come with. "Are you guys ready?" she asked.

"For what?" Arianna responded. Austin looked at Brenna and inclined his head towards the Armory; she nodded. Unlike Sean, Austin caught on pretty quickly - for most things, anyways. How could anyone _not _notice Nim?

"We're going to find you a weapon," he announced.

To forestall what probably would've been the millionth question of the day, Brenna explained, "Yes, you're gonna need a weapon, no, you're not going to training first. Last time someone just tried everything until they found out what they were good at, Trident Boy shot me in the leg during archery. Twice." Austin started laughing. "Shut up. Just because you-"

"Are we going, or what?" Arianna interrupted. Brenna had almost forgotten that she was there. Which was pretty stupid of her, since helping (okay, kidnapping) the younger girl was the only way for her and Austin to get out of the pointless Trials. Really, they were at a camp where demigods fought each other both in practice and outside of it to get stronger. Even the atrocity that was karaoke night had at least been entertaining. Mentally scarring, but entertaining.

"Last one there's a-" Brenna took off before Austin finished speaking. All of that running for her life definitely paid off; she was at least a minute ahead of both Arianna and Austin.

Once Austin caught his breath, he pulled out a sheet of paper with the lock code written on it. Why was there now a lock on the Armory door? After a few too many accidents, someone decided that maybe allowing a bunch of hyperactive teenagers full access to more deadly weapons than they already had was a bad idea. Rebuilding cabins got annoying after awhile.

The door opened, and Arianna promptly gasped. Brenna could see why. The walls were entirely lined with weapons; not just the standard daggers, clubs, swords, bows, and spears, but also a few assorted Japanese weapons, a large variety of guns, and some completely random stuff that could be used as a weapon in theory. She absentmindedly pulled her pistol out of its holster. It hadn't come from the Armory; her mom collected guns, so one day, to teach her a lesson about leaving them where young children could get them (and, well, it was shiny), Brenna took it, hid it in her room, and forgot about it until her first (and only) visit home. By that time she hadn't actually found a primary weapon, so the pistol became her new weapon of choice. It was kind of sad that she'd had it for seven years and couldn't be bothered to learn what model it was. The dagger she had been using before that was now her back up. "Maybe you should put that away..." Austin suggested.

Brenna looked up. Her gun was pointing at a jug of Greek Fire. Who put that stuff in the Armory? Leo? She immediately put it away. "Right. Thanks. Anyways, um, what about this one?" she asked, handing a random sword to Arianna.

"It feels kinda awkward," Arianna replied, putting it back on the wall. "Maybe this one?" She picked up a mace and quickly put it down. "Too heavy."

"Try a bow." Austin grabbed a relatively normal-looking bow and gave it to Arianna.

Backing away slightly, Brenna said, "Uh, I'm sure he didn't mean that literally." She wasn't worried about Austin hitting her while he tried to show the other girl how to shoot a bow. He was amazingly good at archery (so, average for an Apollo guy) and not currently mad at her. But she'd been on the wrong end of too many arrows from inexperienced (*cough* Trident Boy *cough*) campers to actually trust someone learning how to shoot anywhere near her.

He gave her a weird look. "Yeah, I did. Okay, so pull the string back like this, and... release!" Austin's arrow hit an empty gap in the wall. Arianna somehow managed not to hit anything explosive... maybe shooting stuff in the Armory wasn't a great idea after all. "Hm, not bad. Let's..."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Arianna ventured. _Looks like Sean's not the only mind reader around here, _Brenna thought. _It's not like I was actually gonna say that out loud, but still, it's creepy. _

"Not everyone's as perfect as you, Austin," Brenna put in. Anything to not get shot. Fortunately, Austin had already been convinced. "Here, have something that won't accidentally blow this place up," she continued, giving Arianna a spear.

"Hooray, a long pointy stick. How do you guys carry stuff like this around outside camp without anyone noticing or having your arms fall off?" The new girl had a point there. Since most demigods didn't get magical transforming weapons like Percy and Jason, lugging heavy stuff like battle axes and spears around got really annoying after a while. One reason why Brenna had chosen light and easily concealed weapons. Heck, people had kept asking Diego why he had a fishing pole when he'd been forced into using a halberd on their quest. She still wondered how he'd managed to lift the thing, let alone fight with it.

Austin responded, "The Mist is very, very effective. Mortals usually only notice weapons during actual combat situations, and then they see them as something different." He grinned ruefully. "That doesn't stop some of this stuff from being heavy, though. Ask anyone who's carried armor around for more than five minutes."

They went through at least five other possible weapons (_naginata, _shotgun, rapier, javelin, and dagger; Arianna hadn't seemed too happy about that last one for some reason) until Arianna found a scythe near the back. "Hey, I kinda know how to use one of these." Brenna looked it over.

"That's more of a 'could be a weapon but usually isn't' kind of thing, but what the hell, we haven't found anything better for you so far. Try it out." The younger girl complied. Once she started to get into it, she wasn't that bad. Of course, Brenna was by no means a weapons expert, but hanging around an Ares guy for four years, well, stuff rubs off on you. And even she could tell that Arianna needed some work on technique, but other than that, yeah, not bad for a beginner. The whole scythe thing totally made "Whose Kid Is This?" easier.

"Great, that's settled, but there're only ten minutes left for the Trials, so we'd better get back soon or we'll be late for the sing along!" Austin exclaimed like it was the most pressing thing in the world.

Brenna rolled her eyes. "Whatever. We'll stop back at the cabin first. No, not you," she added as Austin was about to open his mouth to protest. "You go ahead."

"So I _shouldn't _bring this to the camp fire?" Arianna asked with mock surprise. Good, she was finally starting to loosen up. That only took a day.

"See you guys!" Austin called as he ran to avoid the possiblility of missing the first song. Brenna didn't see why he got all worked up about a corny sing along - every single day - but she was planning to go poke Trident Boy with a spork every day they had pegasus riding together, so she decided not to judge. She and Arianna followed him out at a much slower pace, making it to the Hermes cabin to drop off Arianna's scythe and then jogging to the ampitheater. They even got there like two minutes early; five minutes earlier than the rest of the Hermes kids did.

The look on Sean's face was incredulous, and if Brenna hadn't been busy singing "Live Like You're Immortal" she would've burst out laughing. If this was the reaction she'd get for being early, she'd do it more often. Halfway through the sing along, she got tired of singing (walking around for hours without drinking anything will do that) and just stared at the flames. It was fun watching them change colors. They were green when it ended. Not the most energetic of nights.

She was brought back to reality by a sharp jab to the side. Looking around, Brenna realized that people were starting to leave and that Diego was now sitting to her right. "Dude, it wasn't me!" she complained. Best to get that out of the way as soon as possible. Diego almost always carried some kind of weapon on him and he wasn't above using threats to force a confession; granted, those were mostly against his siblings. Still, he was not someone you wanted to take chances with; not only was his temper sometimes as short as his crew cut, but the dude was six foot six and _ripped._ Enough that his Camp Half-Blood shirt was tighter around the chest area than an Aphrodite girl's (not that all of them dressed that way, but the ones that did weren't exactly subtle. If Brenna noticed it, it was pretty obvious).

"What, the backpack thing? Nah, I found some paint near Sherman's bunk earlier. He's not exactly the artistic type." She had been worried about nothing - again, but a little paranoia never hurt anybody. "You have to admit, you're usually the only one who does that stuff." He didn't need to add what they were both thinking: that pretty much everyone else was too scared to try.

"Yeah, well, after the stuffed jaguar incident I learned my lesson. So, why are you here?"

"Better question: where were you all day? The Trials I got, 'cause you skip out on everything that isn't Capture the Flag or volleyball. But you didn't show up to firework making, and I guess I got a little worried."

Brenna saw someone else coming right before that person said, "Understatement of the century. He was all 'oh my gods, did she go into hiding? Did she get attacked by monsters?' and it was so bad that I actually called him more paranoid than you."_  
><em>

"_Buenas noches a ti también_, _querida. ¿Conoces a quién ganó la_ competencía?*****" Great, more Spanish. At least Brenna knew who the other person was: Jess. She was the only one Diego ever spoke Spanish to in conversation... unless he was annoyed with someone who didn't understand it. Sure enough, Jess appeared and sat on Diego's lap. The two of them looked enough alike that they could pass for siblings. They had the same dark brown hair, lighter-than-average complexions (compared to the Latinos Brenna had known in LA, anyways), and brown eyes. And the same irritating habit of slipping into Spanglish or Spanish for no reason, especially when they were only with one other person. Jess was slightly better-looking and about a foot shorter than Diego, though, and they acted like an obvious couple, so unless someone was really oblivious they didn't usually get called brother and sister.

Thankfully, Jess chose to answer in English. "Sorry, but it's true. And Mark won, as usual. Clarisse was _pissed._ You guys really should've been there."

"I was busy. Me and Austin were helping Arianna choose a weapon." Brenna saw Diego's eyes light up when she mentioned the word _weapon. _Typical. The guy was like a walking armory sometimes. "Eventually we found a scythe in the back."

"Hm. Was it at least a war scythe?" he asked, receiving an _I-don't-know-you're-the-weapon-"expert"-here _look. "Regular ones weren't supposed to be weapons, but if it was one of the ones those Demeter guys had re-forged in the forties, it'll work for her."

Jess and Brenna had both long since given up on asking Diego how he knew random stuff like that. "...Yeah. Anyways, Brenna, you don't have to work in the infirmary anymore, right?" Jess asked, attempting to change the subject.

"Nope, today was the last day. That, and Capture the Flag's tomorrow, so Chiron didn't want me anywhere near there. No idea why."

"Maybe it's because people always get knocked out and you dump water on them," Diego interjected.

"Shut up. I wanted to see if it'd work. It's not my fault that Hollywood lied."

Jess glanced at her watch. "Come on guys, we'd better get to bed before lights out. Walk with me?" She turned to Diego. Brenna decided to leave before they started kissing.

"'Night," she said before she walked to the Hermes cabin. Inside the cabin looked much less like a refugee camp than it did that morning. Still not clean, since there were random articles of clothing strewn around the parts of the floor that weren't being slept on and Sean had left gum wrappers everywhere. A good start, though. The only really clean spots in there were Brenna's bunk that she hadn't had time to mess up and Arianna's spot on the floor. Oh, and Nim's bed, but that was a given. The kid was an absolute neat freak.

"Brenna, join our game!" Sean called. He was sitting in the corner with Arianna, Noah (his younger brother), and some other guy. They were playing a game of BS. Having nothing better to do, Brenna squished in between Sean and Noah. "Hang on, one ten... ha, I win! Take that, Noah. Alright, let's play again. Tyler, you suck at this. A lot. And you bent the fricking eight! Now everyone knows where it is." The guy Sean identified as Tyler protested. "Whatever. Arianna, you deal."

The game took about fifteen minutes. Even though Arianna wasn't a good liar, she was a hell of a lot better than Tyler. If you're gonna lie every other turn, laughing about it is a bad call. Somehow Noah managed to win that time. "Dudes, it's time for bed," Brenna half-yelled. "Finish up whatever, you've got five minutes." She lent Arianna a pair of pajamas since they were about the same size, then climbed the ladder to her bed and crawled under the covers without changing out of her clothes. As an afterthought, she dropped her shoes on the bunk below her.

"What the heck?" Sean yelled, throwing the shoes back at her. He missed. The usual mixed chorus of goodnights and insults followed, and everyone was out in ten minutes.

Brenna woke up four hours later and sprinted to the edge of the woods. Demigod dreams really did suck. "Rory, I don't know what to do," she stated to the ash sapling that used to be her satyr friend. "See, I had this dream, but I don't remember all of it, but it was important, and it had something to do with _him. _I don't know if I wanna believe it or not. It could be great, but on the other hand the entire camp could be in danger - sorry, more danger. It's just so... argh! Well, thanks for listening, I guess I'd better go before the harpies show up. G'night." She dove under the covers once she made it back and almost instantly fell asleep again.

**Author's Note: This was really, really fun to write. For those of you who were wondering what Diego said, (very) loosely translated, it was "Good night to you too, dear. Do you know who won the competition?" Just to get this out of the way, I am not a native Spanish speaker, so I apologize for any errors that might happen. The next update will happen hopefully before the end of March.**


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